Westward Ho: Days 6 & 7 – in the zone

by Gareth on November 21, 2013

Blog post from Jeanette on Vega received at 08:30am thursday morning.
Apology for the blog free days.When Bunny and I reached our final destination and joined the Vega as co-skippers, we lost access to computer and e-mail. This is being transferred via radio to s/v Baltazar where Ros is kindly typing it up.

Since the drill ship Noble Bob Douglas arrived Tuesday morning with supply ship Hart Tide, we have been driving in small circles between them, within the 500 metre zone.

The other boats are watching from outside the zone. We can not visit them again without risking implicating them in our actions, and we haven’t rigged the sail to stabilise the rolling. There have been hours of extreme boredom and moments of exhilaration, especially learning most of the Arctic 30 have been bailed, and that Anadarko’s operation here is illegal, because the Environmental Protection Authority signed off their consent without sighting their emergency spill response plan which they are supposed to approve.

There has been great loss of dignity as the wind rose to 20 knots and our tight circles sent us barrelling from one wall to the other, and many bruises on heads, shins and shoulders. Last night, anger: as the second supply ship the Bailey Tide got sick of waiting 500m away all day and decided to dock with the drill ship, with us in between. Neither ship responded to our communications and requests for their intentions, and little wooden Vega was nearly squished between two giant steel hulls, closing in our narrow strip of water and squeezing us out like toothpaste. There is a lot of lawbreaking out here, and it mostly isn’t us.

I suggest you check the Oil Free Seas Flotilla and Greenpeace NZ websites for photo and video blogs. I may be able to send one more when we head back and rendezvous with the rest of the flotilla.

You are out there breaking a law made to insure the safety of protesters while complaining that your safety is being put at risk. You will not get much sympathy from the average kiwi. Why not continue you protest from a safe distance? You want to get in there way so you can play the victim and get media attention. Good plan, I’m going to go play cricket on the road and complain about cars interfering with my game.

Forgive Murray guys, he is on another planet entirely. Not sure if he is form the same species actually. I think he is a fossil fuel loving sort of single cell life form normally found at the bottom of old diesel tanks. Not sure how he manages typing stuff on a keyboard. But here you go. Enjoy the entertainment while this troll lasts.

Well Jeanette does not seem to have a problem with oil in general, as she is happy to power her boat with it, and likes to wear it. For some reason she prefers her oil to come from corrupt, woman persecuting regimes than be locally produced. (Does buy local only apply to everything else?) Your protest is with the government who are allowing them to drill. Expecting them to avoid you when you are clearly within the safety exclusion zone and trying to make trouble is a bit rich. I hope nobody is hurt in this protest, but you need to take some responsibility for the safety of those on board the Vega.

Again, you manipulative clown: what, just like the corrupt, women-hating regimes you and your mates are supporting every time you gleefully and thoughtlessly fill your SUVs, tractors, quad-bikes etc.? The corrupt, women-hating regimes you actively support via your hysterical campaigns against renewables? Those corrupt, women-hating regimes?

And, this is called ‘civil disobedience’. It has a long history. It’s the reason, for instance, why women have the vote, the Raj don’t still rule India, and blacks don’t have to sit at the back of the bus.

Rest assured; in every one of those cases, there were always a few ‘Murrays’ there, frantically attempting to poison the well to further their misanthropic agenda…

Bill has beaten me to it. I had just composed the following:
The tactics of committed greenies make me think of the suffragettes who often had to resort to extreme measures to grab public attention. Condemned as loonies, crazy women, etc, they are now acknowledged as brave leaders in their fight for the right to vote. Let’s hope the Oil Free Seas activists’ message will get across to politicians and public before it’s too late.

I just don’t understand why you would use oil to power your boat when you are trying to protest against oil. It sends such a mixed message. If you agree oil is still a vital resource (as you must) then why is it ok to drill in other countries and not locally? We have some of the highest enviromental standards in the world and we have ethical oil. I would have thought you would prefer your oil to meet these high standards? I agree we are currently supporting woman persecuting regimes, now is our chance to move away from this and be more self sufficient.

I just don’t understand why you would use oil to power your boat when you are trying to protest against oil. It sends such a mixed message. If you agree oil is still a vital resource (as you must) then why is it ok to drill in other countries and not locally? We have some of the highest enviromental standards in the world and we have ethical oil. I would have thought you would prefer your oil to meet these high standards? I agree we are currently supporting woman persecuting regimes, now is our chance to move away from this and be more self sufficient.

Ever seen a sailboat or been on one? The wind is not made by an oil driven generator as you seem to think…. But most sailboats have an engine to allow them to maneuver in and out of port safely and to use in case safety or urgency requires. I personally arrived in NZ sailing, crossing oceans, with a small tank of diesel on board for the occasional use if really needed.
Murray, you are really putting your foot in your mouth to an extent that is rarely seen in public. In other words you are a complete dork.

Murray the Tone Troll is trying to use the logical fallacy of “Perfectionism” here:

Perfectionist

If you remark that a proposal or claim should be rejected solely because it doesn’t solve the problem perfectly, in cases where perfection isn’t really required, then you’ve used the perfectionist fallacy.

Example:

You said hiring a house cleaner would solve our cleaning problems because we both have full-time jobs. Now, look what happened. Every week she unplugs the toaster oven and leaves it that way. I should never have listened to you about hiring a house cleaner.

Insults say more about you than me Thomas. The protesters and you have conceded we still need oil. So now the argument is why can’t we use local oil? It’s not a climate change issue as the demand will always drive supply so the oil will be produced somewhere anyway. I understand your concern is the risk of a spill, which is apparently minimal given our oil needs to be pumped from the ground. The real risk, as we saw with the Rena, is a ship grounding. Now this is just as likely to happen from importing oil as shipping our local oil to port. So given the economic benefits and the ethical nature of our oil, why do you still oppose it?

The Aviator

The Aviator is Gareth's latest book -- the first in a series set in The Burning World. Cover artist Dylan Horrocks describes it as: "a light-hearted journey (by state-of-the-art airship) around a world transformed by climate change and subsequent political collapse. Rock God Evangelists, super-rich survivalists, back-to-nature primitivists, heavily armed luddites, goats with the secret of eternal youth, and a horny artificial intelligence with a taste for bluegrass and classic Hollywood films; The Aviator is a Gulliver-esque romp through a future we hope won’t come to pass."